Missouri State wins • Nick Masoner ran for 132 yards and Jason Randall had two rushing touchdowns as host Missouri State trounced NAIA member Southwestern College 57-0. Appalachian State won 11 games previous year and is a favorite to win its league, but no one expected this Tennessee team to struggle on Thursday night.
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Coming off No. 9 Tennessee’s closer-than-expected 20-13 overtime victory, the fifth-year UT coach appeared on the CBS College Football Special show on Saturday afternoon in NY.
Quarterback Josh Dobbs dived into the end zone on the first possession of overtime and promptly fumbled the football when clocked by a pair of defenders.
The ball popped loose and bounced into the end zone. On Thursday, under the weight of heavy expectations, the Vols erased a 10 point deficit and figured out a way to win.
“I am not into moral victories”. Quarterback Taylor Lamb finished off the drive with a 5-yard run. “We put ourselves in position to win and didn’t capitalize”.
Vanderbilt quarterback Kyle Shurmur passes against SC in the second half of an NCAA college football game Thursday, Sept. 1, 2016, in Nashville, Tenn. “I was scrambling, and I just tried to get there as fast as I could at the sideline”.
It also raises another question altogether: If the Vols could only muster up that kind of effort against App State, can you imagine what could happen when they play Alabama? Dobbs threw an ill-advised pass that was intercepted at the 5-yard line just before halftime, stymying a chance to score and gain some momentum entering the locker room. Ranked #9 in the country, the Tennessee Volunteers struggled heavily against Scott Satterfield’s squad as the Mountaineers pounded away on the ground.
The Mountaineers got on the scoreboard first after a fumbled punt by Tennessee. Senior running back Marcus Cox rushed for 115 yards on 24 carries and also had a 33-yard scoring reception. “This is the first game, and this is a tough environment to come into for a freshman kicker”, Satterfield said. Appalachian State refused to get pushed around and kept Tennessee’s offense out of the end zone for the first 49 1/2 minutes. “Sometimes, the ball doesn’t bounce your way”.
Cameron Sutton fumbled a punt and the Mountaineers smothered the ball at Tennessee’s 36-yard line in the first quarter. The Tennessee defense held a veteran Mountaineer offense that ranked 15th nationally in yards per play a year ago to just 3 of 13 on third down conversions.
Medley moved the Vols closer with his 39-yard kick in the third stanza and Dobbs had one of his few moments of brilliance at the 10:30 mark of the fourth quarter when he delivered a strike to receiver Josh Malone (two receptions for 81 yards) for 67 yards and the tying score.
Tennessee was extremely lucky to survive this game.
So there’s no reason to worry just yet Tennessee football fans.
“I think we’ve been underestimated for a long time”, Boggs said.
“You don’t know how guys will react”. They just played smart, fundamental football.
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LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (AP) – Lamar Jackson accounted for a school-record eight touchdowns and 405 offensive yards by halftime to help Louisville dismantle Charlotte. “I thought they had a great game plan coming in and did some different things that really challenged us schematically in both phases offensively and defensively”, Jones said. “I knew that if the quarterback didn’t have front-sides then he was going to throw it back, so I made a decision to stay home and try to make a play”, Abernathy said. And while Appalachian State will have edges on both sides of the football in almost all of its games, this isn’t one where we can expect them to hang for a full 60 minutes. We will learn from this loss.
